Drives On What Side?
Posted by clementine
of you and of everything that surrounds us...
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Oct 10, 2009
Brands-and-Jingles said...
And yet, it is not very precise, Indians do drive on the right... Need to update it a bit.
Oct 12, 2009
Mark Millmore said...
My old fencing master told me that we English drive on the left because of Magna Carta - the Great Charter of Freedoms signed by King John of England in 1215.Let me explain - Magna Carta gave all English men freedom from serfdom (hence the term freemen), which meant that even the lowliest peasant could bear arms. This was not the case in continental Europe where only the nobility and their men at arms could carry weapons.
In medieval times most people were right handed (being left handed might get you burnt as a witch). Therefore, if you were travelling on the road you would ride your horse on the left so that your sword arm (right arm) was free to defend yourself from travellers approaching in the opposite direction. When cars were invented Englishmen drove their cars on the left out of habit.
Driving on the right is an arbitrary decision made by Napoleon when he marched his armies and wagons of supplies into Russia.
Oct 12, 2009
Tony Fleming said...
That explanation is going to be my party icebreaker from now on. Thanks Mark Millmore. I'm sending e-mail from my T-Mobile Blackberry, What are YOU DOING?
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